The 41-year-old athlete produced a best throw of 19.91m to finish third but he was deemed ineligible for the medal.
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Indian para-athlete Vinod Kumar, unfortunately, lost the bronze medal that he had won in the men’s discus throw F52 category at the Paralympics. The reason for this was that the organisers of the Paralympic Games said that Kumar was found ineligible in disability classification assessment by the competition panel. The 41-year-old athlete produced a best throw of 19.91m to finish third behind Piotr Kosewicz (20.02m) of Poland and Velimir Sandor (19.98m) of Croatia on Sunday. Fans had rejoiced and India bagged yet another medal at the Games but the jubilation would soon turn into disbelief and frustration. It was indeed an unfortunate decision which several fans dubbed unfair on social media.
Kumar’s third-placed finish was challenged by a number of the other competitors. As a result, it was sent for review and the decision was overturned. The athlete who had initially come fourth in the event was later awarded the bronze medal. “The panel was unable to allocate the athlete Vinod Kumar from NPC India with a sport class and the athlete was designated as Classification not Completed (CNC),” the organisers said in a statement. “The athlete is therefore ineligible for the Men’s F52 Discus medal event and his results in that competition are void,” it added.
F52 is for athletes with impaired muscle power, restricted range of movement, limb deficiency, or leg length difference, with athletes competing in a seated position with cervical cord injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, and functional disorder. Para-athletes are classified depending on the type and extent of their disability. The classification system allows athletes to compete with those with a similar level of ability. Kumar’s classification had been initially done on August 22.
Ultimately the onus of the wrong classification falls on the organisers of the Paralympics. If the classification was done on August 22, there was more than enough time to review it and make changes if it was necessary. It took an appeal by the participating athletes, who rightfully felt wronged, for the organisers to review their own classification. In no way was it the athlete’s fault since he might not have been aware of the entire issue in the first place.
“Results of this event are currently under review due to classification observation in competition. The Victory Ceremony has been postponed to the evening session of 30th August,” read a statement from the Games organisers ahead of the review. India’s Chef de Mission, Gursharan Singh, said at the time to news agency PTI that Kumar’s medal stood for the time being.
“There was a protest from one country or maybe more than one, we don’t know as it can’t be revealed, that there could be issues on the classification done on Vinod before the start of Paralympics,” he said. “Vinod’s result, that is his bronze, still stands and a decision is unlikely to come today. It’s expected tomorrow,” Singh added. Unfortunately for him and the athlete, the bronze medal was ultimately taken away and Kumar will have to return home empty-handed.
